Composition of the Armies
It seems certain that Mu’awiya commanded a greater number of forces than Ali. Some accounts. – estimate Ali’s army at Siffin as 70,000 strong, others at 90,000 men while Mu’awiya is reputed to have had either 100,000 or 110,000 men in the field. All accounts refer, however, to the numercial superiority of the Syrian forces.
The battle array followed the old tribal pattern of Arab warfare on both sides, with the troops divided into tribal units. Among Mu’awiya’s troops the tribes of Hims and Kinaryan were conspicuous for their devotion to his cause. Ali’s army could boast of its “Crops of Green”, a column of 4,000 men who had sworn to fight to the death and whose distinguishing mark was a green turban. Masudi speaks of 2,800 companions of the Holy Prophet who had joined Ali’s army and were eager to shed their last drop of blood in order to consolidate Islam and crush the schismatic tendencies in Islam.. What is certain is that there were many men on both sides who were fanatically devoted to the causes for which they were fighting.
During the one hundred and ten days of negotiation the chroniclers tell us that no fewer than ninety skirmi-shes were fought. Almost every day one tribal column would engage an enemy in combat, sometimes two or more engagements would be fought in one day. The weapons used in these skirmishes were the usual shields, swords, bows and arrows, lances and javelins and it is thought that some 25,000 Muslims were slain on Ali’s side and some 45,000 of Mu’awiya’s men in these unnecessary trials of strength, while the leaders of both sides dared not commit their armies as a whole to what could only result in annihilation.
Heartbroken at the amount of Muslim blood that had already een shed in vain, Ali made one last bid for peace with Mu’awiya, at the beginning of the New Year. Finding unavailing he then caused proclamations to be made along the front ranks of the Syrians, urging them to repent and to join forces with him so that they might save themselves in the next world by swearing allegiance to the rightful Caliph before death overtook them in this filthy world. These proclamations failed to bring about the desired result but they infuriated the Syrians to such an extent that they resolved to stand by Mu’awiya more loyally than ever. In the field of propaganda Ali could never hope to equal the crafty Mu’awiya, for the tribesmen constantly misunderstood the complete simplicity of Ali’s motives and his straightforward desire to avoid blood-shed. They therefore attributed to Ali a duplicity of which he was not guilty. With Mu’awiya they felt they knew where they stood and to him they gave their loyalty more strongly than even before. Besides Mu’awiya’s immense treasure could easily buy them.
The Indecisive Battle of Siffin, 8th Safar’ 37 A.H. (Wednesday the 26th July 657 A.D.)
At long last, Ali decided on a general engagement, 1. Sir William Muir (The Caliphate, its rise, Decline and Fall, p. 261) places this incident on the 29th July whereas Wellhausen (The Arab Kingdom and its Fall p. 78) establishes Wednesday, July 26th as the most probable date bringing forward irrefutable evidence in support of this.but even then he could not bear to commit himself to a full offensive. Instead, he instructed his men to wait for the enemy to begin operations, to let the enemy make the first assult. Only then, fighting in self-defence, were they to display all the strength and valour that they could command. Ali further hedged them round with instructions about their conduct of the war they were not to plunder or kill ruthlessly, or display any indecent or unbecoming behaviour towards women, and children, the aged or the sick. They were not to so much as raise a hand against any woman, no matter how insolent she might become nor to enter the homes of the enemy. Nor might they, under any circumstances, mutilate a dead body. In Ali’s mind the thought seems ever to have been uppermost that the enemy were fellow-Muslims while in Mu’awiya’s mind Ali and his forces were, first and foremost enemies, to be hated as such and treated as such.
“Ten days after the renewal of hostilities” says Sir William Muir “both armies drawn out in entire array, fought till the shades of evening fell, neither having got the better. The following morning, the combat was renewed with greater vigour. Ali posted himself in the centre with the flower of his troops from Medina, and the wings were formed, one of the warriors from al- Basra the other of those from al-Kufa. Mu’awiya had a pavilion pitched on the field; and there, surrounded by five lines of his sworn body-guard, watched the day. Amr with a great weight of horse, bore down upon the al-Kufa wing which gave way; and Ali was exposed to imminent peril, both from thick showers of arrows and from close encounter. Reproaching the men of al- Kufa for their cowardice, the Caliph fought bravely, his unwieldy figure notwithstanding, sword in hand, and manfully withstood the charge. Ali’s general Ashtar, at the head of 300 Readers (of the Qur’an) led forward the other wing, which fell with fury on Mu’awiya’s “Turbaned” body-guard. Four of its five ranks were
1. Sir William Muir The Caliphate, its Rise, and Fall. p. 261.
cut to pieces, and Mu’awiya, bethinking himself of flight, had already called for his horse, when a martial couplet flashed in his mind, and he held his ground. Amr stood besides him-“Courage today” he cried, “tomorrow victory”. The fifth rank repelled the danger Feats of and both sides again fought on equal terms. desperate bravery were displayed by both armies and On Ali’s side fell Hashim bin heavy was the carnage. Utba the hero of al-Qadisiya. Of even greater moment was the death of Ammar bin Jassar, now over ninety As he saw years, and one of the leading regicides. Hashim fall, he exclaimed, “Paradise! How close thou art beneath the arrow’s barb and falchion’s flash! O Hashim! even now I see heaven opened, and black- eyed maidens, bridally attired, clasping thee in their embrace.!” So singing and refreshing himself with his favourite draught of milk and water, the aged warrior, fired with the ardour of youth, rushed into the enemy’s rank and met the coveted death. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) had once been heard to say to him, “By a godless and rebellious race, o Ammar, thou shalt one day be slain” in other words, that Ammar would be killed fighting on the side of the right. Thus his death, as it were, condemned the rank against whom he fought and spread dismay in Mu’awiya’s host. But Amr bin As answered readily: “And who is it that had killed Ammar, but Ali and the ‘Rebellions race’ that have brought him hither?” The clever repartee ran through the Syrian host, and did much to efface the evil omen.” 33 battle started up again
The following morning the with unprecedented vigour, as if each side had determined to make this day the witness of the last and decisive action. In this engagement tradition makes much of the heroism of Ali’s general Ashtar, an Arab of the finest kind who possessed all the chivalrous qualities that the Arabs had long admired and who performed prodigies of valour. The verses of the poet Najashi describe his part in the battle in the followin immortal lines:-
“Incessantly the Syrians pressed Against them the batteringam of Iraq Displayed their valour unique Until Ashtar drove them back.”
As the day wore on, it became evident that, although Mu’awiya’s forces were not yet defeated outright their position was definitely worsening. Having exhausted their arrows they had taken to pelting Ali’s forces with stones; they next took to their javelins and lances until finally they were compelled to fall on Ali’s troops with drawn swords. Even the approach of darkness failed to separate the combatants and for some hours a nocturnal battle was fought which, along with a similar occurrence at Qadisiya, earned the second night of the Battle of Siffin the name, “The Second Night of Clangour”.
In this nocturnal battle Ali was well in limelight. With his cousin Ibn Abbas, he stood firm as a rock, resisting onslaught after onslaught of enemy’s force and killing, so the chroniclers assert, as many as five hundred men in single combat. By the end of the struggle it had become apparent that Ali’s forces had gained the upper hand for the enemy dead were piled high on the battlefield. The victory was almost in sight.
The historian, Sir Edward Gibbon’ describes Ali’s part in the victory as follows:-
“The Caliph (Ali) displayed a superior character of valour and humanity. His troops were strictly enjoined to await the first onset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren, and to respect the bodies of the dead, and the chastity of the female captives. The ranks of the Syrians were broken by the charge of the hero, who was mounted on a piebald horse, and wielded with irresistable force, his ponderous and two edged sword. As often as he smote a rebel, he shouted the
1. Edward Gibbon-The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol III, p. 522. Publishers Fredrick Warne & Co. London.
“Allah-ho-Akbar” (“God is great”). And in the tumult of a nocturnal battle, he was heard to repeat five hundred times that tremendous exclamation.
Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi 